3 Who Insisted On Launch Leave Thiokol Jobs

June 3, 1986|By Tim Smart and Mike Thomas of The Sentinel Staff (Reporter James Fisher contributed to this story.)

Three of the four vice presidents for shuttle booster-maker Morton Thiokol who overruled warnings from their engineers not to launch Challenger in cold weather are retiring early or are being reassigned, sources said Monday.

Gerald Mason, 59, who headed Morton Thiokol's space division in Brigham City, Utah, at the time of the Challenger accident, sent a letter to employees announcing his decision to retire June 30.

The other two -- space program manager Cal Wiggins and shuttle project chief Joe Kilminister -- are getting new duties.

Mason oversaw a management meeting on Jan. 27 at which he, Wiggins, Kilminister and Robert Lund reversed an earlier decision against launching Challenger. Kilminster signed the letter from Morton Thiokol giving the company's consent for the mission to proceed despite fears that seals in booster joints could stiffen and fail in the cold.

Tom Russell, a spokesman for the company at its Chicago headquarters, said Mason sent a letter but would not elaborate. Russell could not be contacted later in the day about the reassignment of Wiggins and Kilminister.

Meanwhile, Allan McDonald, the company's chief booster engineer who fought against launching Challenger, has been offered the job of supervising a redesign of joints in the rockets for Morton Thiokol, said NASA's chief engineer, Milton Silveira.

McDonald still had not accepted the offer Monday evening, Silveira said.

If he accepts, McDonald would work extensively at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., which is in charge of the shuttle's propulsion systems. Marshall officials questioned Morton Thiokol's initial recommendation against launching and the company changed its position.

A leak of hot gases from a joint in Challenger's right booster triggered the tragedy.

Some members of Congress and the chairman of the presidential commission investigating the shuttle tragedy have criticized Morton Thiokol for changing McDonald's duties after he told the commission about his opposition to the launch.

Panel chairman William Rogers said he found it ''shocking'' that the company had assigned McDonald to a new post which McDonald said had little authority or responsibility. Company officials denied they had acted to punish McDonald and said the move was part of a company reorganization.